This relates generally to sensors and, more particularly, to light sensors for electronic devices.
Electronic devices such as cellular telephones often contain light sensors. For example, a cellular telephone may use an ambient light sensor to measure the amount of ambient light in the environment in which a cellular telephone is operating. When a large amount of ambient light is detected, screen brightness may be increased to help offset the brightness of the environment.
Some cellular telephones contain proximity sensors that can detect when the cellular telephone has been brought into proximity to a user's face. When the cellular telephone comes into close proximity to the user's face, the touch screen in the cellular telephone can be deactivated to avoid unintentional touch input. This type of proximity sensor may contain a light-emitting diode that emits infrared light and a corresponding infrared light sensor that measures the amount of the emitted infrared light that is reflected back to the infrared light sensor from the user's face.
It can be challenging to mount electronic components such as ambient light sensors and proximity sensors in electronic equipment. If care is not taken, sensors such as these will be exposed to view and may be unsightly. Covering the light sensors with cosmetic structures may help enhance device aesthetics, but can potentially interfere with the transmission and reception of light signals associated with the light sensors.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved light sensors for electronic devices.